Category Archive: News Wire Services
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3 buildings near Market Street to be refurbished
By Ann Belser,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Wednesday, February 21, 2007Three abandoned buildings that run between Market and Graeme streets are about to see new life.
Right now it’s hard to see the beauty in them. The windows of 439 Market are made of just screening, and some of that is gone. A portion of the roof has collapsed into the basement.
On the Fifth Avenue side of the buildings a mural has been painted to dress up, and board up, the first floor of 130 Fifth Ave.
By next year, though, the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation will join the three buildings into one to create seven apartments over one large retail area.
The plans call for spending more than $2.5 million to restore the buildings, said Arthur Ziegler Jr., president of the foundation, who will have a better estimate of the cost in a couple of weeks.
The buildings were all constructed in the early 1900s . The building at 139 Fifth Ave. opened in 1908 as the Regal Shoe Co. showroom.
Thomas Stevenson Jr., the architect for Landmarks Design Associates, said the building is architecturally interesting, in part, because the upper story was built to hang over the sidewalk and held there with steel beams and chains. He said inside the building the chains still are visible.
“The intent is to really have this be a historic reconstruction of the facades,” Jeremy Smith, assistant director of the city planning department, told members of the planning commission yesterday during the board’s meeting.
The board unanimously approved the application to partially demolish the exterior of 439 Market on the Graeme Street side and to renovate the three buildings.
The buildings had been scheduled for demolition until the foundation stepped in and purchased them from the city Urban Redevelopment Authority. Renovations can start as early as next week and be done in 11 months.
The plan calls for six one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom apartment. Two of those apartments at 441 Market will open to gardens on the roof of 130 Fifth Ave.
“We decided, after looking at offices and apartments, that it would be good to have apartments on Market Square,” Mr. Ziegler said. He said they will all be rental apartments, not condominiums. “We felt there was a need in town for apartments as opposed to condos.”
(Ann Belser can be reached at abelser@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699.)
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Fire destroys old Butler County church
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Tuesday, February 20, 2007A 125-year-old Butler County church is a total loss after a fire Sunday morning.
The blaze broke out inside McKee Chapel United Methodist Church around 8 a.m. It was discovered by a congregation member who had arrived early to warm the church before services.
He saw smoke and called 911, and seven fires companies rushed to the rural chapel in Fenelton, about eight miles east of Butler, but could not save it.
Fire marshals say a faulty furnace is to blame.
McKee Chapel had several dozen worshipers and was one of three churches pastored by the Rev. Sherry Cook.
Dean Ziegler, superintendent of the Methodist Church’s Butler district, said it is not known if the church will be rebuilt. It depends on the level of insurance compensation, the needs of the congregation and the possibility of a merger with a neighboring church.
Craigsville Methodist and Fenelton Methodist are the two closest churches and they are offering their sanctuaries as places of worship for the members of the burned-out church.
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Diocese sells Tarentum, McKeesport church properties
By Andrew Johnson
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 16, 2007Two shuttered churches in Tarentum and McKeesport have been sold to the Manhattan real estate firm, The Follieri Group LLC, according to the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
The properties are the St. Clement Church owned by the Holy Martyrs Parish in Tarentum and St. Stephen Church owned by St. Pius V Parish in McKeesport. The St. Clement deal also involves school buildings and a parking lot, said diocesan spokesman Rev. Ronald Lengwin.The Allegheny County Recorder of Deeds has no record of the Tarentum transaction. But St. Stephen Church, located on Beacon Street in McKeesport, sold in January for $60,000, part of a “package deal” that includes a rectory, school building, and two parking lots, said Rev. Edward Litavec, pastor of the St. Pius V. He said St. Stephen Church closed in 2002 and merged with St. Pius V.
Litavec said money from the sale would go to care for St. Stephen Cemetery on Westinghouse Avenue in North Versailles.
Lengwin said The Follieri Group is interested in several other properties, and sales agreements on three have been reached, including one for the historic St. Nicholas Church on the North Side. Lengwin refused to give the price and also declined to name the other two churches.
He said a fourth church is for sale, but declined to name it.Messages left for The Follieri Group were not returned, but on its Web site, the company says that church properties it acquires “are converted to uses that would continue to serve and contribute to their respective communities in a socially responsible fashion consistent with the ideals of the Church.”
Some uses include “low and middle income housing, community centers, day-care facilities, senior citizen housing, places of worship, offices and retail spaces,” according to the company.
“We have confidence that they will live up to their promise,” Lengwin said.
Litavec said he has no idea what The Follieri Group intends to do with the empty McKeesport church.
“We were just so happy it sold,” he said. “There was always somebody breaking into the place.”
Since 2002, 15 vacant church buildings, including St. Stephen and St. Clement, have been sold, Lengwin said. All money made from selling church properties goes to the parish selling the individual church, Lengwin said.
Andrew Johnson can be reached at ajohnson@tribweb.com or 412-380-5632.
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X marks $1.1M spot for North Side theater, URA
By Bonnie Pfister
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 16, 2007A decade of legal battles over the Garden Theatre ended Thursday with a $1.1 million agreement between the owner of the North Side X-rated cinema and the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority.
The settlement, announced at the URA’s monthly board meeting just an hour after it was signed, comes almost two months after the state Supreme Court ruled that the city of Pittsburgh could seize the theater by eminent domain.The board unanimously approved the deal, and the city could be in possession of the theater along West North Avenue before the end of the month.
“This is a great day for the city of Pittsburgh,” said state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, a URA board member. “It certainly elevates the overall development potential of the area.”
The dispute began in the mid-1990s, when then-Mayor Tom Murphy initiated the seizure of 47 buildings along and near Federal Street west of Allegheny General Hospital as part of a redevelopment program called “Federal North.”
But theater owner George Androtsakis refused the URA’s $214,000 buyout offer, saying the city was trying to squelch his First Amendment right to show pornographic films.
“Mr. Androtsakis would have loved to have a theater showing other kinds of film, but he couldn’t attract an audience because of the demographics of that neighborhood,” said James Sargent, the attorney who argued on Androtsakis’ behalf before the court and negotiated yesterday’s deal.
“He loved the Garden Theatre because it was a remarkable edifice, a real testament to our evolution as a culture,” Sargent said. “But, in the final analysis, he agreed to this without bitterness. It’s a business decision.”
URA general counsel Don Kortlandt said he first reached out to Androtsakis soon after the Supreme Court’s ruling, but negotiations broke down in mid-January. Androtsakis reconsidered about a week later, and negotiations resumed in earnest 10 days ago, Kortlandt said.
While Androtsakis initially was asking for far more than double the price finally agreed upon, Kortlandt said, “We got to a number that we both could stand, high enough for them, low enough for us.”
Last month, the URA sent out requests for proposals for redevelopment of 10 parcels surrounding the theater, but URA officials said many expressed skepticism as long as the theater continued to show pornography. The requests now will be amended to include the 92-year-old movie house, which began showing adult films in 1972.
Bonnie Pfister can be reached at bpfister@tribweb.com or 412-320-7886.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.
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Battle over houses heats up – Group says council went against the law when it repealed subdivision OK
By Jan Ackerman,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Thursday, February 08, 2007Emotions are running high between historic preservationists and a nonprofit organization that wants to build seven houses on a vacant parcel behind Munhall’s historic library.
Officials of the Mon Valley Initiative are convinced that Munhall council violated state zoning law when it voted to repeal its approval of a subdivision they want to build in the Library Estates neighborhood.
John Bixler, executive director of Mon Valley Initiative, said the organization had gotten legal advice and believed borough council erred when it rescinded approval of the subdivision Jan. 26.
“The rescission was illegal. We have the right to build,” Mr. Bixler said.
Munhall Councilman Michael Terrick doesn’t think that is the case. He said council approved the subdivision, with the understanding that Mon Valley Initiative would comply with historic district standards that were part of a separate ordinance.
“They are hanging their hat on a technicality,” he said.
Munhall’s solicitor, Louis Silverhart, is researching the issue and will have a legal opinion for council, probably this month.
Mr. Bixler cited a letter from George Janocsko, an Allegheny County solicitor, which was read to Munhall council before its vote.
Mr. Janocsko’s letter said Pennsylvania’s municipal planning code prevents local governments from changing local zoning, subdivision and land use ordinances once a subdivision has been approved.
Mr. Janocsko said any attempt by council to amend the borough’s historic district ordinance to include the MVI property would contradict the “plain and clear prohibitions of the municipal planning code.”
As a result, he said, the adoption of the ordinance would provide Mon Valley Initiative with strong legal grounds to sue the borough for a denial of permits and other authorizations.
At a rancorous Jan 26 meeting, council took two actions, voting to expand an existing historic district to include the two-acre tract where Mon Valley Initiative wants to build the houses and to repeal the subdivision approval it had given to MVI.
Several days before the meeting, MVI officials applied for the building permits for the four-bedroom, 21/2-bath houses, which will sell for about $130,000. Mr. Bixler said his organization had every legal right to do so, given that the subdivision had been approved.
That action angered some members of Munhall council, who accused the principals of Mon Valley Initiative of trying to circumvent the desires of council to impose historic requirements on the new development.
The controversy centers on a vacant tract in lower Munhall, behind the historic Carnegie Library of Homestead in a neighborhood called Library Estates which used to be home to mill superintendents.
The neighborhood is mixed. In recent years, some people have bought some of the old mansions around the library, fixed them up and installed globe outdoor lighting. The neighborhood now has its annual Christmas house tour.
Mr. Bixler said the new houses that MVI plans to build would be more expensive than most of the existing houses and would not harm the historic quality of the neighborhood.
Neighbors disagree, saying the new vinyl homes are not appropriate for the area.
Opinions aside, it looks as if the real issues might have to be resolved by the courts.
(Jan Ackerman can be reached at jackerman@post-gazette.com or 412-851-1512. )
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Fallingwater, courthouse make Architects’ cut
By Joe Napsha
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, February 8, 2007Fallingwater, the famous Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Fayette County, and the Allegheny County Courthouse, Downtown, were rated as two of America’s 150 favorite pieces of architecture, in a list announced Wednesday.
“There is no question these are the two most uniquely architecturally significant structures (in the region). People come from throughout the world to see them,” said Arthur P. Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.Ziegler, whose organization is involved in preserving historic and architecturally significant properties in the region, said he was not surprised that Fallingwater and the Allegheny County Courthouse made the list.
The Empire State Building in New York City, followed by the White House in Washington, were at the top of the American Institute of Architects’ list of 150 favorite pieces of American architecture. The list was developed in conjunction with the association’s 150th anniversary.
Fallingwater, which Wright designed in the 1936 for Edgar J. Kaufmann, owner of the former Kaufmann’s department store in Pittsburgh, might be one of Wright’s most innovative works, Ziegler said.
“There really is no other house like it, yet,” Ziegler said, calling it “an extraordinary design in an extra ordinary site.”
The house at Mill Run, which Wright placed over a waterfall on Bear Run, is so popular that it attracts 130,000 visitors annually, said Clinton Piper, museums program assistant at Fallingwater.
“It’s something that continues to speak to people at all levels of education. People can come here without any prior knowledge of this and can find something inspiring. I think that’s part of its enduring appeal,” Piper said.
The Allegheny County Courthouse on Grant Street, which was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and finished in 1886, “is a timeless piece of architecture and represents a real quantum leap in terms of American style,” said Thomas Briney, immediate past president of the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
“Richardson had a singular kind of style and that’s what set it apart,” said Briney, an architect with Perkins Eastman, Downtown.
Richardson considered the courthouse “the culmination of his career,” Ziegler said.
To the late James Van Trump, the landmarks foundation’s co-founder, the courthouse was “the architectural lion of Pittsburgh,” Ziegler said.
Two buildings in Western Pennsylvania were ranked in the top 35 of the American Institute of Architects’ 150 favorite pieces of American architecture.
1. Empire State Building, New York City
2. The White House, Washington
3. Washington National Cathedral, Washington
4. Thomas Jefferson Memorial, Washington
5. Golden State Bridge, San Francisco
6. U.S. Capitol, Washington
7. Lincoln Memorial, Washington
8. Biltmore Estate (Vanderbilt residence), Asheville, N.C.
9. Chrysler Building, New York City
10. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington
29. Fallingwater (Kaufmann family residence), Mill Run, Fayette County
35. Allegheny County Courthouse, Pittsburgh
Joe Napsha can be reached at jnapsha@tribweb.com or (412)-320-7993.
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Group seeks designation for former city stable
By Bobby Kerlik
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Monday, January 29, 2007Erected 112 years ago, a three-story building on West North Avenue on the North Side once stabled horses for the Allegheny City public works department.
A local historic group wants to designate the building — now used as a private garage — as a historic structure.“There are very few municipally owned buildings left from the city of Allegheny,” said Timothy Zinn, 43, of the Allegheny West historic group. “The Department of Public Works had several stables at one point. This appears to be the only one left — from Pittsburgh or Allegheny.”
Built in 1895 for $12,260, the stable housed horses used for everyday tasks such as hauling water tanks to clean the streets, Zinn said.
After Pittsburgh swallowed Allegheny City in a forced annexation in 1907, Pittsburgh continued using the building as a public works stable until horses were phased out. The stable then was used as a garage, said Michael D. Eversmeyer, chairman of city’s Historical Review Commission.
“In 1928 the city of Pittsburgh still used 300 horses in various departments,” said Eversmeyer, chairman of city’s Historical Review Commission.Pittsburgh sold the building in 1969.
The commission will consider the proposal Feb. 7, although City Council will have the final say on the designation. Once a building is designated as historic, the owner must get approval from the commission before doing work on the exterior.
Building owner Jim Rutledge could not be reached for comment.
Tenant Al Land, of Spring Hill, rents the building from Rutledge to work on cars. He said historical buffs have asked to film or take pictures of the building in the past.
“I used to work here as a kid when it was a delivery company,” Land said. “I like the building. I hope they don’t kick me out. I don’t know what I would do with these cars.”
Zinn admitted the building is in poor condition. Windows on the first floor have been filled in with concrete bricks, and many of the windows on the second and third floors are broken or have been boarded up.
A faded sign, proclaiming “DPW Bureau of Highways and Sewers 8th Div.,” still hangs outside the building.
Inside the building, dim lighting reveals crumbling arched ceilings with ornate exposed beams and chipped paint.
Carole Malakoff, a member of the Allegheny West historical committee, said the building could be repaired and saved. She said the building was rumored to be targeted for demolition by a prospective buyer.
“We thought we ought to hurry up and do something,” Malakoff said. “It’s probably the last stable left in the city, and it can be developed. It’s important to reflect the history of Pittsburgh. People want to live in neighborhoods that have character.”
Bobby Kerlik can be reached at bkerlik@tribweb.com or 412-391-0927.
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Delmont’s identity is closely associated with landmark
By Bob Cupp
For the Tribune-Review
Friday, January 26, 2007The position of a natural spring often determined the location of a new town; that was the case at Delmont where a spring provided an ample water supply, undoubtedly influencing early settlers in their selection of a home.
Delmont was originally known as Salem Crossroads and, later, New Salem Borough. The name “Salem” was derived from Salem, Mass., after William Wilson arrived from that state and settled here in 1785.Wilson built a log cabin, south of present-day East Pittsburgh Street, near what became known as the Big Spring. Hugh Bigham arrived in the community about 1810 and opened the first store. He also laid the first wooden water line from the spring to a wooden trough just east of what became the center of town, in effect, establishing the community’s first “city” water.
A north-south road from Poke Run Church to Greensburg, eventually known as the Greensburg-Kittanning Pike, was built through the village around 1800. The east-west Northern Turnpike, which later became the William Penn Highway, was completed in 1819, linking Pittsburgh with Philadelphia. The turnpike also passed through Salem Crossroads, bisecting the north-south road at the center of town where Greensburg, Freeport and Pittsburgh streets now intersect.
The crossroads village quickly became a prosperous transportation center. As many as five different stage lines passed through town, carrying a large volume of freight and passengers.
Delmont would not have become a major stagecoach stop without the continuous flow of water provided by the Big Spring that’s never been known to run dry. When the stagecoaches reached Salem Crossroads, the passengers, drivers and horses could always look forward to a cool, refreshing drink of water.
The watering trough was originally known as the running pump because a wooden pump was used to fill the trough. The pump was replaced by a pipe in 1886. The trough is about 100 yards from the spring, which is in the vicinity of present-day Fairview Street on land once owned by Squire Patty.
Of course, the original wooden trough eventually rotted. In its place, a longer wooden one was built. It also rotted and had to be replaced, as did later wooden ones. In 1910, a large concrete trough was built; it was about the same size as the previous wooden one. That first concrete trough lasted until the early 1930s when it was hit by a truck and damaged. It was then replaced by the smaller concrete trough that many present-day Delmont residents fondly recall.
“We drank that water all our lives and, so far, we haven’t died,” Bob Yaley remarked. “In the 1930s, people used to come and fill the trunks of their cars with gallon jugs. Back then, there wasn’t much traffic in town and you could park there without any problem.”
Delmont native Dorothy Cochran Lindsay shared some of her watering trough memories.
“During the 1930s, my dad would take his horses to the watering trough whenever there was a dry spell and the spring on the farm went dry,” Lindsay said. “Later, he and a group of local men would ride their horses through town on Sundays. They would always stop there to water them.
“I drank from the watering trough every day on my way to and from school,” she said. “We never went past the watering trough without stopping for a drink. I can’t recall it ever freezing over — even in the coldest winter.
“We used to sled ride down the Lutheran Hill on East Pittsburgh Street all the time,” Lindsay continued. “The watering trough is at the bottom of the hill. I remember when Paul Frye slid into the corner of the cement trough and got a concussion. My parents didn’t allow me to sled ride down the hill after that incident.”
Don Jobe’s great-grandfather hauled coal and freight with a team of horses and a wagon.
“He used to water his horses there at the trough,” Jobe said. “When I was growing up, everyone used to go down there and wash their cars. I stopped there every day to get a drink of water when I delivered newspapers on Pittsburgh Street.”
Eleanor Jobe Kemerer recalls that “the water ran all the time; it was good and cold. I can remember when people would bring their horses in and water them. Later, they would fill up milk cans and haul them away in their cars.
“When Bob and I got married, we lived in an upstairs apartment in Chal Christy’s house,” Kemerer reflected. “We had no running water at that time and we carried all our water in from the watering trough for drinking, bathing, cooking and washing clothes. We brought it upstairs in buckets and heated it on the stove.”
Alice Ewing Cathey grew up across the street from the watering trough. She recalls her father, Fred Ewing, cleaning the trough.
“I remember coming home from college during the late 1960s and finding him standing there in the rain, smoking his pipe upside down to keep it dry, while using a rake or hoe to remove debris from the bottom of the watering trough; it was a hilarious sight,” Cathey said with a laugh.
Cher Anderson’s most prominent memory of the watering trough is a line of cars along East Pittsburgh Street on Sunday afternoons, waiting their turns to be washed. Of course, in those days, there weren’t any commercial car washes in the area.
Lysle Bash recalls, “When I was young, people filled 10-gallon cans to water their livestock, or to use in their houses. I remember one elderly couple, in particular, who would walk from near the Presbyterian church every day to fill up two water jugs.
“That was the place we always stopped after we played ball,” Bash remarked. “Back when I was still in school, they put a sign on the trough warning people not to drink the water, but I don’t know of anyone who died, or even got sick from drinking it.”
In 1973, the Delmont Lions Club rebuilt the watering trough for the Salem Crossroads Historical Restoration Society. The club’s intent was to restore it to its 1850 wooden construction. The design was based on architect’s sketches and drawings derived from old photographs and descriptions from old-time residents.
The trough is 17.5 feet long and 4 feet wide. A tree couldn’t be located that would be big enough for the entire trough in one piece, so a partition was constructed instead, using steel plates with supporting rods on either end. It was built from white oak obtained from Boswell Lumber Co., and assembled at John Wolfe’s residence. Several Lions Club members assisted with the construction and installation.
Over the years, there have been many unofficial caretakers of the watering trough, including A.S. Machesney and, later, Fred Ewing, while the cement version was still in place. During the 1980s, as part of another restoration project, cut stones from the barn on the nearby Shields Farm were used to provide a solid foundation for the trough.
Currently, Jay Anderson, who lives next door to the watering trough, serves as its caretaker. Anderson most recently refurbished the trough in 2004 with assistance from the borough. He has also preserved a 10-foot section of the original wooden pipe that was used to transport water from the spring to the trough.
In the 1970s, after the watering trough was restored, the Department of Environmental Resources determined that the water quality no longer met state requirements and the trough was disconnected from its water supply. That event was troubling for many old-time residents who wanted to see the water flowing again — just as it always did.
The watering trough is located along the south side of East Pittsburgh Street, 50 yards east of Greensburg and Freeport streets. The first trough was located under a tree near where G.A. McLaughlin’s house and, later, Chal Christy’s house, stood. After the lot was sold to George Reicker, the trough was moved a short distance to its current location.
Although Delmont no longer gets its water from the watering trough, the Big Spring continues to flow into a tributary of Beaver Run, which, in turn, flows into Beaver Run Dam. Since the reservoir supplies water to most of Westmoreland County, indirectly the Big Spring is still quenching the thirst of Delmont residents today.
Delmont just wouldn’t be the same without its watering trough. The old landmark is closely associated with the founding and history of Delmont. Although the horses and water are long gone, the trough remains today, restored and maintained by a community that values its past.